BIOGRAPHY

Through a combination of performance, video, and installation, Amy Cannestras’ work takes on the role of devil’s advocate, challenging social norms and tradition. Using body and identity as an entry point, her work pokes and prods at relationships with media, politics, and social expectations. Adopting stylistic cues from trends in culture and life, Cannestra uses glitter, home insulation, found object, projection, and her body to question systems that have been set in place to define our identity.

Alongside a thriving studio practice, Cannestra is one third of SPOOKY BOOBS, a trio of feminist artists using art, language, and design to visualize the trivialization of women’s experiences. Formed in 2014, SPOOKY BOOBS produces public performances and installations with the mission to halt the perpetuation of sexism in our culture.

Cannestra received her BFA in communication design from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 2006 and her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2015. Since receiving her MFA she has been teaching art and design, attending residencies, and showing internationally. She has performed in the 2016 TransArt Triennial, installed a multi-media installation in the 2017 TRIO: Biennial in Rio de Janeiro, and shown at the Museum of Wisconsin Art. Most recently Cannestra has been invited to represent Grenada, West Indies in the 2019 Venice Biennial. Amy Cannestra is currently based in Stevens Point, Wisconsin working as a Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.